On April 30th, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan has officially announced the termination of its rugby team activities. In response to this announcement, both the players and the staff members of Coca-Cola Red Sparks are now in the process of preparing themselves with a positive mind to pave their future path through a different approach and platform.
When I assumed the role of the head coach of this rugby team in 2004, one of the first things I did was to set the minds of the players to "become a Top League team in three years". I still vividly remember those early days when the team gradually started growing stronger. Time flies fast indeed.
United under the common goal of "becoming a Top League team", we spent the first year together practicing really hard every day as if we were in an endless intensive training camp. Much of the second year was used to confirm how the team was slowly but surely building its capacity to fight more strongly through test matches with tough opponents.
On the very last game of my second year with the team, we fought against Kintetsu. This was a very important match for us because we would get promoted to the Top League if we won. And that’s what we did! Personally, it was a happy surprise because we made it to the Top League in my third year as the head coach, which was one year earlier than expected. This was a memorable year that made us all feel we were able to return a small favor to the local community in Kyushu that warmly welcomed us as their home team.
I am very proud of our team members who continued to fulfill both their roles as company employees and athletes by living up to the slogan to "become a good member of the society before becoming a good rugby player". They are the real gems who made Red Sparks a great team that was continuously cheered and loved by fans not only in our hometown of Fukuoka, but also by many supporters spread across Kyushu and other parts of the country.
After achieving our initial goal of becoming a Top League team in 2006, I switched our team target to "become the No. 1 team in Japan" and my personal goal to train as many players as possible to the top-notch level who could be selected as the members of the national team. Throughout these years, we have been working hard every day in hopes of sharing the excitement and fulfillment of making these new dreams come true together with our fans. I now feel responsible for not being able to deliver to you the happiness of such big glory.
With that in mind, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all the fans and stakeholders both locally and nationwide, and to the deep understanding of the company for enabling the Red Sparks build a proud history and tradition for 55 years.
The players and staff members will keep doing whatever they can to help the rugby culture grow in Japan. We promise you that we will all continue contributing to the well-being of the society and community, and further development of the sports culture.
Once again, thank you very much for supporting us all these years. Your warm cheers and kind words of encouragement will live on in our hearts forever.

Shogo Mukai
Coca-Cola Red Sparks
Director and Head Coach, Rugby Club